Environmental Law at Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School offers a cutting-edge, multi-faceted program in environmental law. The curriculum continues to expand and includes a variety of classes, including the foundational courses in Environmental Law, Public Land and Resources Law, and Land Use Law, to advanced seminars in Law and Policy of Ecosystem Services, The Law of Climate Change, Water Law, and Human Rights and the Environment and Skills, Methods, and Controversies in the Practice of Environmental Law. The program is directed by Professor Jody Freeman and features an array of full-time and visiting professors, lecturers, and fellows.
In 2006, we hosted a top-level conference on pending climate change legislation that connected students and faculty with leaders from industry, environmental organizations, state government, and the United States Senate. In partnership with the Environmental Law Society, we also hosted a spring speaker series that included Former EPA Administrator Carol Browner and several other experts in environmental law and policy. We are holding another major conference on April 11, 2008, focused on opportunities and challenges for state carbon trading schemes, with particular attention to carbon offsets. This conference will be co-sponsored by the Harvard Center for the Environment and the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University. Our panelists and invitees will provide a broad range of expertise and range from policy makers to offset market participants, state officials, and academics. The conference will be policy relevant, focusing on the challenges for states that wish to use carbon offsets in their greenhouse gas reduction programs. For a conference agenda, please click here.
The new Environmental Law and Policy Clinic launched during the Fall 2007 semester under the leadership of Wendy Jacobs. The Clinic includes a variety of placements and projects covering a broad range of topical and challenging environmental issues. Some students are working off-campus with government agencies and non-profit organizations, while others are working on-campus on cutting-edge projects under the direct supervision of Wendy Jacobs.
This year's clinical offerings include partnerships with the Conservation Law Foundation on a variety of water protection, with power, and energy regulation projects, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection on preparation of administrative decisions and policies, Ceres on preparation of climate-related shareholder resolutions and Congressional testimony in support of broader corporate disclosures about environmental matters, the Environmental Law Institute on development of a national wetlands policy, and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation, involving the implementation of Executive Order No. 484, entitled "Leading by Example," the purpose of which is to put the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other forms of pollution into practice.
Some of the projects being handled on-campus within the Clinic include preparation of a consumer's guide to the purchase of renewable energy, preparation of proposals for and testimony in support of legislative reforms to improve access to renewable energy by consumers and municipalities, analysis of the legal aspects of use of tidal, wave and solar energy for electricity production, development of a model "green label" rule, and work on lawsuits involving false environmental advertising and the right of regulators to deny air quality permits to facilities that emit carbon dioxide.
To read "A Conversation with Professor Jody Freeman on Environmental Law" at Harvard Law School, please see Professor Freeman's feature in Harvard Law Today.
For further information, please contact us at:Environmental Law Program
Harvard Law School
Cambridge, MA 02138
environment@law.harvard.edu